Highway 65

Relocated from Tel Aviv, fortysomething police officer Daphna finds herself seeking shade in the blinding summer heat of small town Afula. The petty crimes committed by locals are a far cry from the big city cases she left behind, but when an army widow and former beauty queen from the outskirts of town goes missing, she is drawn to the case. Daphna’s new peers brush off her mounting concerns and the woman’s family denies any involvement, but they all seem to know more than they let on. The indifference she meets towards the woman’s fate shakes Daphna to the core. Fearing the worst, she becomes intimately intertwined in the case and pushes professional boundaries to find answers by any means necessary.

Tali Sharon (Harmonia, SFJFF 2017; The Milky Way, SFJFF 2024) breathes life into Daphna, the unlikely heroine never without food in her hand or on her shirt. Pugnacious but stalwart, she provides a trustworthy compass when everyone else’s proves unreliable. — Dominique Oneil

North America Premiere

Following the success of her 2 short films - Wax Hurts (2001) and Visiting Hours (2005) - in Cannes IFF, Maya Dreifuss had completed her debut feature She Is Coming Home (2013). The film won Best First Feature Film Award, Best Actress Award and Best Cinematography Award at the Jerusalem IFF and Best Female Supporting Role Award at the Israeli Academy Awards. In 2016 she co-created and artistically directed Heroine, a film comprising five shorts, written and directed by female directors. Maya was the script editor of the 2016 Sundance Grand Jury Award winning Sand Storm and The Dive (2018, Toronto IFF official selection and Jerusalem IFF Best Film Award winner). Maya is a senior professor and head of production department in the Steve Tish Film & Television School, Tel Aviv University.